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Measuring the Gender Gap

MEN may be from Mars and women from Venus, but the planets are moving a bit closer, at least in the workplace, according to Elle magazine.

“The gender gap is narrowing in part because men are getting better at listening and communicating, which are traditionally thought of as ‘feminine skills,’ ” says Janet Lever, a professor of sociology at California State University, Los Angeles who helped construct questions for a survey.

Still, profound differences remain, according to the survey of 61,647 people conducted by Elle and MSNBC.com.

Among the findings:

¶Three out of four women would rather work for a man if given the choice.

¶Some 71 percent of female bosses said they needed to “work harder” or “be smarter” than a man to get the same respect. (Some 36 percent of men agreed.)

¶When asked if they were competitive, 58 percent of women said yes. Two-thirds of men did.

¶“Over all, women came out slightly ahead of men, despite having lower average salaries,” wrote LiLi Tan, who reported on the study. “Who knew banging our heads on the glass ceiling could feel so good?”

and no play Remember the concept of work/life balance? Apparently, most companies don’t.

“Not too long ago, there seemed to a real effort to give overworked executives some breathing room, carving out space for family and personal responsibilities,” Gary M. Stern writes in The Conference Board Review.“But as with so many corporate initiatives and mission statements, the talk rarely materializes into action.”

Why hasn’t the concept of work/life balance taken hold? The two biggest reasons are well known. There is continuing pressure for increased corporate performance, which makes it difficult to take time away from the office, and technology like cellphones, laptops and BlackBerries make it easy to be in touch with the office at all times.

But to those reasons, Mr. Stern adds a third: out-of-touch chief executives.

The heads of most major companies have stay-at-home spouses and the money to pay for full-time child care. And by definition, being in charge means you don’t have to deal with a demanding boss at work.

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“The lives of the worker bees are 180 degrees different from the top executives,” says Kathie Lingle, director for the Alliance for Work-Life Progress.

OFFICE ROMANCE The potential for abuse is a significant reason companies go out of their way to legislate against office romances.

But there are two other reasons that companies fight cupid, Psychology Today reports:“The potential for alliance, and (worst of all) the potential for distraction.”

All that said, she offers advice for managing an office affair should you — or a friend — become involved in one. Among the suggestions: No romance on company time in any form, including e-mail messages; don’t take unnecessary business trips together; and if you must travel at the same time, don’t take adjoining rooms; and “Don’t tell. Anyone. Don’t gossip, confide or give in to the delicious impulse to discuss your love interest.”

FINAL TAKE There is apparently an exception to all those studies that show that good-looking people make more than the rest of us.

According to a nonscientific Parenting magazine poll, conducted through its Web site, 55 percent of mothers say that they would not hire a babysitter who was more attractive than they are. PAUL B. BROWN